Textile material



Feb. 22, 1944. w wHlTEHEAD 2,342,231

TEXTILE MATERIAL Filed April 18, 1941 THERMOPLASTIC ORNON-'THERMOPLASTIC YARN.

HORSEHAIR WEFT COATED WITH AN ORGANIC DERIVATIVE OI CELLLJLOSE.

INVENTOR. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD BY ATToFNEv's Patented Feb. 22, 19442,342,231 r'nxma MATERIAL William-Whitehead, 1m, N. Y.,' a ssignor toGelancse Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware a ine-anonApril s, 1941 Serial No. 389,191

6 Claims. (01.139-427) 'Ihisdnvention relates to the production .oftextile material, and relates more particularly to the.

production of stiffening fabrics suitable for use in the manufacture ofwearing apparel.

, In the manufacture of clothing, for example,

. coatsovercoats and the like, each forward'or from section thereofcontains what is known as an inner front which comprises one or morelayers of a stiffening material-such as hair cloth. These innerfronts ofhair cloth were a source of difflculty since they had a tendency to slipafter the garment was wornfor some time. Furthera more, the hair clothitself was unsatisfactory since the individual hairs thereof oftenbecame loose and worked their way out of the garment thus reducing theefllcacy of the hair cloth as a stiffening material. 1

, It is accordingly an important object of this inthe hair and yarns,the bond appears more as a deformity of the coating on the hair whereother yarns cross the same which hold the other yarns and the hair infixed relationship.

Any sultabletype of hair may be employed in forming the hair cloth inaccordance with this invention. It is particularly applicable, however,to the horse hair cut from the tail of a 'horse.

'llhese hairs may be straight in the form they are 10* received from theOrient or they may be crimped vention to provide an improved stiffeningmaterial which will be free from the above-mentioned and otherdisadvantages. i

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved fabric whichwill notonly serve as a stiffening materialfor garments but which willalso maintain the porosity essential to the comfort of the wearer whenthe fabric is employed in the manufacture of garments.

A further object ofthis invention is the'provision'of a hair clothcontaining natural horse hair whichis firmly and substantiallypermanently anchored in the hair cloth whereby none of the horse hair isloosened or lost during the life of the garment.

Still another object of this invention is the pro vision of a processfor treating the horse hair 7 prior to the formation of the hair cloth.

Other objects of this invention will appear from the following-detaileddescription. i The figure of the accompanyin drawing showsdiagrammatically a form of'fabric that may be employed in my invention.

In accordance with my-invention, an improved hair cloth for use asstiffening material for coats,

overcoats and other garments as well as for use in other technical orindustrial articles and pre-- pared by employing in the weft horse hairwhich has been coated with a layer of an organic derivative .ofcellulose. This coating :may consist of from 5 to 20% or more on theweight of the hair of an organic derivative of cellulose. After weavingthe cloth or even after working the cloth into a garment or otherarticle the cloth is pressed in the presence of steam or treated with asolvent,

solvent vapor, or swelling. agent for the organic derivative ofcellulose, with or without heat, to effect a non-slipping relationshipbetween the hair and the other yarns of the cloth. In some instances,this treatment may be such as to produce an appreciable bond or tackingof the hair to the other yarns of the cloth, while in some instances,although thereis' a tacking together of v acetate,

by passing them between serrated nip rollers or by pressing them betweenembossing plates, with or'without heat and softening agents. If desired,a crimp-or indented surface may be impressed upon thehair after ithasbeen coated with the thermoplastic derivative of cellulose in accordancewith the teachings of this invention.

The coating applied to the hair may comprise .any suitable thermoplasticmaterial such as organic esters of cellulose and cellulose ethers ormixed esters or ether-esters of cellulose. Examples of organic esters ofcellulose are cellulose.

propionate and cellulose I cellulose butyrate, while examples ofcellulose ethers are ethyl'cellulose and benzyl cellulose. In coatingthe hair for use in accordance with this invention I prefer to usecellulose acetate which is relatively permanent to washing and drycleaning. The coating may contain, besides the derivative of cellulose,plasticizers and effect materials the natureand amount of which willvary in accordance with the effect desired, as is well understood in theart.

The plasticizers may be any of the high boiling solvents or softeningagents as, for example, the aryl sulphonamides such as para ethyl toluolsulphonamide, the alkyl phthalates such as .di- 'methyl phthalate, thedialkyl tartrates such as dibutyl tartrate, the alkyl lactates such asethyl lactate, the alkox'y esters of polybasic organic acids such asdiethoxy ethyl phthalate, the polybasic esters of the mono alkyl ethersof polyhydric alcohols such as diethylene glycol ether ester of phthalicacid and dimethyl ether of ethylene glycol phthalate, the alkyl estersof phosphoric acid such as triethylglycol phosphate,

- and the aryl esters of phosphoric acid such as tricresyl phosphate.Mixtures of these plasticizers may be employed. The plasticizers may bethose that act as solvents for the cellulose derivative at elevatedtemperatures yet that have no solvent action at ordinary temperatures.

The coating may be applied to the hair bydipping the same in a solutionof an organic derivative of cellulose and removingthe solvent, byforcing a solution of the organic derivative of cellulose through abundle of the hair by means of vacuum and pressure, or the hair may besprayed with a solution of the organic derivative of cellulose, so thateach hair may be individually coated with the organic derivative .of

cellulose. A preferred method of applying the coating is to submerge thehair in a solution containing an organic derivativeof cellulose, with orwithout a plasticizer as-desired,-in a volatile solvent, removing thehair from the solution and evaporating the volatilesolvent. In thislatter method any tacking together of the hairs during the coatingoperation maybe remedied by rolling the coated hairs to separate them.

The coated hair may be formed into fabrics to produce hair cloth of anysuitable nature, as is well understood in the art, the particular weaveof the fabricdepending somewhat upon the use to which the hair cloth isto be used. The hair cloth may contain yarns of cotton, silk, linenwcol, etc., or it may contain such yarns and yarns" 2,342,231 h A, h

end 200 deniercellulose acetate yarn,' then zends I phthalate.

20scotton, and so on across the warp. It is found that the coated hairsarebonded to the cellulose acetate yarns by a strong bond and also"bonded to the cotton yarns. An alternativeto the employment ofcellulose acetate yarns inth'e warp may be made by employing cottonyarns which have a coating of cellulose acetate thereon; 7

Example [I l The procedure of Example I is followed except thatthe-'solu ion applied .to the horse hair contains '5, parts by weight ofdimethoxy ethyl Hair cloth formed containing this amount of plasticizerneed havno alcohol or other solvent applied to'the cloth during thecontaining an organic derivative of cellulose such as cellulose acetate.For instance, the warp may consist of a cellulose acetate yarn ofrelatively heavy denier, say above 200, then two cotton yarns, andrepeating across the width of the warp. The hair may be the sole weft orthe weft may consist of doubled hairs, alternate hair and other types ofyarn, or two or more of hair, then one pick of yarn.

After the hair cloth is woven with the coated hairs, the hair may beanchored therein by pressing the cloth in the presence of steam, ethylalcohol, acetone-alcohol mixtures or other low boiling softening orswelling agents. The bonding of the yarn may be effected only at thepoints where the hair crosses a warp yarn or a. particular type of warpyarn or a more overall bonding picks may be effected by subjecting thecloth to a more severe treatment such as by using a medium of strongersolvent action and/or greater heat and pressure.

The following examples are given merely by way of illustration of theprocess of this invention and are not to be considered as being in anyway limitative.

Example I pounds of horse tail hair are distributed evenly over thefalse bottom of a rectangular vessel, the false bottom being constructedof 100 mesh wire gauze. A solution comprising parts by weight ofacetone-soluble cellulose acetate dissolved in 90 parts by weight of asolvent medium containing 5 parts by weight of ethyl lactate, l0parts-by weight of water and 85 parts by weight of acetone is run intothe vessel containing'the horse hair until the horse hair is submergedby the solution. The horse hair is treated for minutes at 40 C. afterwhich the solution is run off from the bottom of the vessel. Warm air atto C. is then blown gently through the vessel and the horse hair for' 10minutes effecting substantial evaporation of the solvent. Removal ofthe'horse hair from the bath reveals that it is coated with a layer ofcellulose acetate. l

This coated hair is then woven as weft into a endered'between heatedrolls at light pressure and with the rolls steam heated to 200 C. Thecoated horse hairs are found to be relatively firmly bonded to thecotton warp.

Example I! The same procedure is followed as in Example I except thewarp of the fabric consists of. one

pressing operation, the .heat and pressure being sufiicient to effect abonding-of the hair to the l to secure by letters Patent is:

l. A stiffening fabric for use in wearing apparel orother technical andindustrial articles comprising a woven-fabric having a weft containinghorse hair individually coatedwith an' organic derivative of cellulose,saidorganic derivative of cellulose coating forming abonding mate- 2. Astiffening fabric for use in wearing vapparel or other technical andindustrial articles comprising a woven fabric having a weft-containinghorse hair. individually coated with eel-- lulose acetate, saidcellulose acetate coating. forming abonding' material.

3. A stiffening fabric-for use in wearing ap- Darel .or other technicaland industrial'articles comprising a woven fabric'having a weftcontaining horse hair individually coated with-cellulose acetate and aplasticizer for said cellulose acetate, said 'plasticized celluloseacetate forming'a bonding material.

4. A stiffening fabric for use in wearing apparel or other technical andindustrial-articles comprising a woven fabric having a warp containingnon-thermoplastic yarns and a weft con taming horse hair individuallycoated withanorganic derivative of cellulose, said warp and weft beingsubstantially permanentlybonded together. f

5. A'stiifem'ng fabric for use in wearing apparel or other technical andindustrial articles i comprising awoven fabric having a warp vconhaircloth employing cotton as the warp. The fabric is then wetted with ethylalcohol and cal--v taining nonthermoplastic yarns and a weft containinghorse hair individually coated with. ce1-.

lulose acetate, said warp and weft being substantially permanentlybonded together.

6. .A stiffening fabric for use in wearing ap-" parel or other technicaland industrial articles comprising a woven fabric having a warp con--taining cotton yarns and cellulose acetate yarns and a weft containinghorse hair-individually coated with'cellulose acetate; said warp andweft being substantially permanently bonded together.

